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Articles
How to find
the material for Shohin
Text and photos: Morten
Albek
If
to grow in the wild, Shohin-bonsais demands a special living
condition. So if you are going into the wild to dig up a coming
bonsai, you have to find very special places, where the living
conditions are making small pre-bonsai trees for you. This will
often be in areas with mountains and harsh living conditions,
or where animals have eaten the top of the trees. In the case of
finding proper material for Shohin, it is of course very
limited material to be found in the wilderness. But it is out
there, and if one is lucky, one might find it when on Yamadori for the
bigger trees.
Yamadori
Yamadori is the Japanese word for going out
into Mother Nature, to harvest from the wealth of natural
trees. This method gives often far better bonsais, because of
the natural age of the trees to be found.
Wind, storms, sun, snow, ice, rain i.e.,
gives the trees the shine of great age, that are one of the
most important expressions of bonsai.
Mountainous areas have always produced
beautiful gifts for bonsai lovers.
One of the disadvantages of the trips in the
mountains is the difficulty to find the material. But far
worse, is the meaningless and harmful disrespect of nature.
Some collectors has simply overdone in their efforts to find
the green gold, and thereby discredited and spoiled the
opportunities to collect in nature.
Mostly with the signs of money in their
eyes, and with the hope of earning by selling trees to
enthusiasts i.e.
Collecting in nature demands respect of the
surroundings, and thereby one has to take great care and ask
owners of fields before collecting. And newer overdo the
collecting. It will spoil the future of bonsai.
All though it is most possible to find
suitable material in an older garden, and even in some
nurseries where time has allowed trees to grow old, but has
been kept down by scissors.
Nursery stocks
The last example was the case when I found
an approximately 15-year-old Quince, at the time of searching
in 1996.
The small tree was still standing in the
same pot that is was first planted in, 15 years before I found
it. This had made a gnarly structure of the roots, that with
the time passing was exposed to the air and sun. This made a
very interesting possibility to form it into the exposed root
style called Neagari in Japanese. This story to tell, that a
good shohin could be found almost in the neighbourhood, and not
only in the mountains.
The advantage of nursery stocks is of
course, that a three in a plastic container i.e., will have
reduced the roots to almost fit in a pot immediately. Anyway,
the specimens chosen, has to have the characteristics of a old
three. This means, a old gnarled bark on a mature trunk. And
this can be difficult to find in a modern highly effective
nursery, where nothing is left alone for several years in a
corner. So go out into the country where there is a more quiet
way of growing plants.
The treasures of old gardens
A garden Yamadori-trip is also a very good
opportunity to dig up highly qualified Shohin material.
As with the case of collecting in nature, it
is possible to find aged material with great characteristics of
old bark.
Some years ago, when I bought the house in
which we are now living, I dogged up some of a hedge planting.
The old hedge had at the time, grown there since about 1930, my
neighbours told me. The plants were Lonicera nitida, and two of
them were so interesting, that I decided to give them a second
chance to live. And this has given them a totally new life as
Shohin-bonsais.
All though they had nearly no roots at all,
they started to grow almost at once after they were planted in
a shaded corner of the garden.
They have the characteristics of Yamadori
material, and were growing just at few steps away from my door.
Cuttings or seed
Another method of developing material for
Shohin is to grow seeds or cuttings. The method will secure a
little plant with controlled volume of roots, and precise
development of branches. But you then have to wait some more
years to develop the mature bark with cracks and character.
And it will take quite some time to develop
a satisfying and natural trunk.
But if you want to grow very small
Shohin-bonsais, the so-called Mame or bean Bonsais that
measures only up to seven cm in height, this technique can have
some great advantages.
It is very difficult to find good specimens in this size in
nature.
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